Apple almost always waits about a year to introduce a new variation of its products, but in this case, it decided to hold an event to tout the iPad mini, so we suppose Apple decided to do a minor refresh of the regular iPad while they already had everyone gathered. It’s also nearly holiday time, so why not encourage people to get new full-size iPads if they aren’t feeling the iPad mini?

The refurbished third-gen iPad starts at $379 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and goes all the way up to $679 for the 64GB model with 4G LTE connectivity.

Interestingly, Apple will continue to sell the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 as a new item for $400. If we had a choice between the iPad 2 and “iPad 3,” we’d immediately buy the third-gen model for its Retina Display, faster processor, and LTE data.

There’s some indication Apple fans plan to quickly upgrade from the third iPad to the fourth. Electronics reseller Glyde told us it has had a 174 percent day-over-day increase iPad inquires, with the third-gen iPad seeing a staggering 980 percent increase.

iPads photo: Apple

Apple’s October Surprise

We expected Apple to announce an iPad mini today, and we got it. What we didn’t expect was the sheer number of new products the company unveiled. Here’s a rundown of the news.